Masteries

Offense:
9

Defense:
0

Utility:
21

This is my first guide. Be gentle. The point of this guide is to get LeBlanc to be the most she can be. I've taken cue's from her abilities and AP ratios to determine that she's an exceptional Mage/Assassin and this build's purpose is to emphasize that role. There is a distinct lack of survivability in this build. The way I figure, if they really want to kill you, no amount of survival items or runes are going to save you. Might as well take a few of the punks out with you, though. This build lets you do that.

Abilities

First off, let me stress that the above skill order is generic. It should by no means be followed to the letter. There are some champs and teams that will benefit more from you having the ability to perform a Distortion -> Ethereal Chains combo early and often. Be flexible to the needs of your team and the abilities of enemy champs.

Mirror Image: This ability doesn't seem like it offers very much at first. There are definitely much better passives in the game. All the same, it isn't entirely useless; the brief stealth drops any current targeting on you, the clone appears very close to your position, and it's preceded by the sound of fireworks, so you can even get a feel for positioning it to absorb skill-shots, and while I'm not one-hundred percent sure on this, it seems that abilities used on you that are in travel when you disappear get redirected to the clone.

The only downside I've noticed is that if Mordekaiser kills your clone with Children of the Grave, he gets an easy free pet. I have no idea whether his clone pet is capable of doing damage or not. Overall, it's proven to be a pretty useful escape mechanic.

Sigil of Silence: Easily your bread and butter skill, the damage is superb and scales incredibly well with AP, plus bonus damage from follow up skills and a silence to boot. What more could a true mage ask for? (besides a one-click insta-target kill everyone button...I'm looking at you Karthus.) On a very short cooldown, you'll find yourself using this skill a lot. Harass with it, and always Open with it when not using Distortion to get in range.

Distortion: If you're not opening your combos with Sigil of Silence, you're opening them with this handy flash-burst. This ability gives you all the utility you need to do your job which, if you haven't figured it out already, is to blow enemy champions up. This ability lets you move in close, pop a few damage spells, and then you have the option to keep on chasing or pop back to your point of origin. Great for sudden tower dives and all sorts of poking shenanigans. Nothing like having some lady in a cape pop out of a thin wall, melt your face and then disappear back to the other side of the wall before you can do anything about it. That maneuver is a great way to play mind games with enemy champs, and really throw them off their game.

Ethereal Chains: This ability rounds out your damage dealing capabilities nicely. A skill-shot slow that procs damage on hit, and again if the conditions are met, with an additional snare. Enemy champ popped ghost to get away from your amazing damage output? Introduce him to the chains. It's important to get a feel for the speed at which the chains travel. Sometimes your best bet is to use distortion to get in right next to them, and then hit them with the chains to guarantee a slow/snare. It's dangerous, but you can handle it.

Mimic: There are a multitude of ways to utilize your ulti to your advantage. You can use it with Ethereal Chains to slow/snare two champions at once, or keep one champ on an extra-long lockdown. You can use it with distortion to guarantee a quick getaway, or to throw off enemy champs hugging their towers. You can use it to rip through an enemy's health while keeping them quiet with a double-Sigil followed by another ability combo. Using your ulti to maximum effect is paramount, but it's not something that can easily be taught. My best advice is to use it often (shouldn't be hard with a 30s cooldown) and really get a feel for how you can manipulate your other abilities effectiveness with it.

Spells/Masteries/Runes:

I go with Exhaust and Ignite because those spells are the greatest compliment to what I'm trying to do during a match. Destroy people. If you're opposed to one or the other, I'd recommend swapping it with Clairvoyence if no other champs in your team are getting it, or Clarity if you feel you're having trouble with mana. In my games so far, I haven't once encountered mana issues. Ghost would be another alternative if you feel that your W isn't enough to survive.

Masteries are pretty straight forward. You want the ability power, cooldown reduction and magic penetration from the offensive tree, and improved exhaust to help you get First Blood and other kills. In Support, focus on getting Mana, Mana Regen, and Cooldown Reduction. I went for points in reduced death duration and increased experience gain over getting increased run speed and buff duration. Feel free to change those up to fit your style.

Note: You might be wondering why I would get reduced death duration while building a Mejai's Soulstealer. The fact of the matter is, death happens to the best of us, and the only way you're going to recover lost stacks is to get back onto the FoJ as soon as possible.

Runes: Insight and Force. Priority goes to the Armor Pen of Insight (Marks and Quints) while Glyphs and Seals are for Force. I prefer "per level" runes, if you prefer flats, that's your choice and is perfectly viable. Again, this can be changed to fit your play style. If you love your Health Seals, keep em. Got a full set of blue cooldown's? That works, too.

Items:

The item build I have above is what I like to call "Excessive". It relies on you making the most out of LeBlanc's ability to kill champs with nigh-reckless abandon. There is very little survivability in this item build. That's because I believe LeBlanc's W+Mimic provides unparalleled escape capabilities. Zhonya's gets you stasis to endure a front-loaded gank (if you time it right), and well...that's about it. Don't worry, this build is not to be adhered to.

Majai's Soulstealer is optional, but once you're confident in getting kills with LeBlanc it should be a mainstay in your item build. Until that point, however, Deathfire Grasp is a worthy (if more expensive) alternative.

Void Staff can also be optional. If you're up against skilled opponents, they'll probably have adjusted their item build to include massive MR once they see you're pretty face on the loading screen. If that's the case, the Void Staff is key. However, some champions refuse to budge off of their core builds, and that may mean their MR is rather low. If the majority of your enemies aren't stacking MR to counter you, then a Banshee's Veil is a welcome replacement if you're looking for more survivability (which, if they're avoiding MR, they're likely stacking damage).

Heck, go crazy and put a Hextech Gunblade or Will of the Ancients to replace it. Spell-vamping the damage you're putting out is a great way to survive, right?

Merc treads could be a useful alternative to Sorc Boots, but you're so squishy, that if they decide to stun and gun and you, they're probably going to succeed whether you have them or not.

I'm sure there may be other alternatives, if you can think of any, by all means include them in the comments.

And that about sums it up! I'm open to constructive criticism, this is my first guide after all! Please let me know what you think, or if you have questions, feel free to ask!